Fat and ugly

Barton-under-Needwood to Shardlow
20 miles (approx), 9 locks, 9 hours 50 minutes

Not all wide beam boats are ugly, but all the ones I've seen today are. And, just because you can just about squeeze it through the bridgeholes, doesn't mean it's a good idea.



Another pretty uneventful day. We had a brief hiatus when a joint came loose on a fuel pipe, but Jim diagnosed it almost immediately and fixed it within minutes. We then had to contend with the starter motor's reluctance to engage when the engine's hot, but even with that we were only delayed about ten minutes.

We met Colin and Annie on Eli at Horninglow. They are also on their eay to Langley Mill, along with many oher members of the Les Allen Register, who are having a gathering there. This will be rather exciting for us, as Chertsey as a little bit a Les Allen boat - he put the steel skin on Richard Barnett's oak cabin.

We got to Shardlow at about six, got a splendid mooring, and are now between supper and dessert in the New Inn, which is just as good as we remembered from four years ago, and where we managed to start a vigorous discussion among the regulars by requesting out beer without the 'sparkler' (i.e. flattener).

Tomorrow.... the entIre Erewash. We shall see.